Today at Kirkus, I’ve got three brand-new picture books for the toddler/preschool set, books also great for your story time stack. That is here.

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Last week at Kirkus, I wrote here about little children and big emotions — Molly Bang’sWhen Sophie Thinks She Can’t … (Blue Sky/Scholastic, January 2018) and Cori Doerrfeld’sThe Rabbit Listened (Dial, February 2018). I’m following up today with art from each book.

Here’s a zippy-quick post to say I’ve a review over at BookPage of Shake the Tree! (Candlewick, January 2018). This picture book from Chiara Vignocchi, Paolo Chiarinotti, and Silvia Borando (illustrator) was first published in Italy in 2015. Above is a spread from the book.

Over at Tennessee’s own Chapter 16 today, I have a Q&A with author Matt de la Peña and illustrator Loren Long. They will be in Nashville soon talking about their newest picture book, Love. That Q&A is here.

I’m following up with some art from the book today, but I also highly recommend you head to the Horn Book’s site and watch this video interview with Andrea about the book. I watched that earlier this week and enjoyed it.

“I wanted to write about Mary Shelley for over a decade after I learned that she was a pregnant teenage run-away when she wrote her novel, Frankenstein. That blew me away. Why did I not know more about her life when she should have been an incredible role model to young women? We’ve all heard the popular myth that Frankenstein was conceived spontaneously on a stormy night when the poet Lord Byron dared a small party of fellow expatriates to write ghost stories. But the myth strips away the identity of the brilliant young woman who wrote one of the most influential novels of the Romantic era and places credit for its inspiration in the hands of a man. Countless events in Mary’s life before and after that evening played a much greater role in the horror novel’s creation.”

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Over at Kirkus today, I talk with author-illustrator Lita Judge, pictured here, about her new book about Mary Shelley (and her first YA book), which she describes as “part biography, part visual fantasy, and part feminist allegory.” Mary’s Monster: Love, Madness, and How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein (Roaring Brook Press) hits shelves this month.

The Q&A is here. Next week, I’ll follow up here at 7-Imp with some art from the book.

Over here at Kirkus at the tail end of last year, I wrote briefly (in my 2017 Children’s Book Ghost File) about The Purloining of Prince Oleomargarine by Mark Twain and Philip Stead with illustrations by Erin Stead. You can head over there to read what I wrote, if you’re so inclined, but it boils down to this: What a remarkable achievement this book is. And what an entertaining story.

I also mentioned the exquisite illustrations by Erin. Today, I am getting out of the way and handing 7-Imp over to her so that she can share what it was like (for both her and Phil) to take on this project. She also shares lots of images and art, which you know makes this blogger happy. I thank her for sharing.